The University of Dallas English Department has long been recognized for the range and coherence of its curriculum. Though its professors have individual interests and approaches to instruction, all its members share fundamental convictions about the nature of literature and literary studies. This consensus allows the department to support a number of unique programs, such as The Literary Tradition, which is required of all students pursuing the B.A.
- Undergraduate courses in literature answer to two guiding principles: Continuous study of the classic works of the literature of the West in the effort to appropriate a tradition that ought to be possessed by every educated person
- Intensive study of the literature of England and America for the sake of acquiring the heritage proper to the English-speaking peoples and as the means to complete mastery of the language
The two principles are interdependent; one best learns English by knowing its best literature, and one best knows the English poets when one can measure them against those masters and rivals in European literature whom they themselves acknowledge.